1st Edition

Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education Narratives Toward Wholeness

282 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

282 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

282 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

The contributors to this volume – educators, student affairs practitioners, and higher education staff – heartfully share a broad range of contemplative practices and acts of resistance used within the confines of shattered systems and institutions for themselves, their colleagues, and their students. The narratives in this volume broadly imagine, inspire, recount, and guide readers toward the... Read more

Preamble

An Invocation of Seven Directions Toward Wholeness

April E. Lindala, Denise Cadeau, and Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval     

Preface

Acknowledgements

Meet the Contributors

 

Chapter 1: Introduction: Contemplative Practice Is an Act of Resistance

Michelle C. Chatman, LeeRay Costa, and David W. Robinson-Morris

 

Part I: Ever Present and Interconnected: Symphonic Journeys, Rooted Practices

Michelle C. Chatman

Chapter 2: Teaching Best What You Most Want to Learn: The Way of the Crows

Brandon LA Hutchinson

Chapter 3: Unsettling the Colonial Shadows of Contemplative Practice

JuPong Lin

Chapter 4: Cajitas as My Contemplative Practice

Alberto López Pulido  

Chapter 5: Contemplative Practices Through a Black Feminist Lens: Badassery, For Real Love and Fellowship

Emerald Templeton

Chapter 6: Deepening Belonging: A Contemplative Practice of Relational Flourishing

Aizaiah G. Yong and Yohana Agra Junker

Chapter 7: Reflections Beyond Fragmentation: A Fractal Reconfiguration

Vaishali Mamgain

 

Part II: Conjuring Transformation: We Who—Know—Know

David W. Robinson-Morris

Chapter 8: Revealing Healing, Wholeness, and Power: Sitting Zazen

Monika L. Son 

Chapter 9: From Body Oppression to Body Sovereignty Through Contact Improvisation

Robin Raven Prichard 

Chapter 10: From Practice to Purpose: Contemplative Dance as a Method for Moving through Resistance

Candice Salyers

Chapter 11: Creative Envisioning: A Contemplative Practice That Promotes Healing, Personal Growth, and Professional Development

Virginia Diaz-Mendoza

Chapter 12: On Being (A) Contemplative in Higher Education: ‘Moving’ through Familiar and Unfamiliar Spaces

Emmanuelle Khoury  

Chapter 13: Conjuring Transformation: The Magic Is in the Process

Maria Hamilton Abegunde

 

A PAUSE.

Chapter 14: Cool Like Jazz: A Loving Dialogue on the Multiplicity of Black Manhood

Bradford C. Grant and Michelle C. Chatman

 

Part III: Rhizomatic Awakenings, New Plateaus: Rhizomes, Connection, Ruptures, and Lines of Flight David W. Robinson-Morris

Chapter 15: Showing up Audacious and Bad Ass from the Edges and on the Margins Like My Ancestors

Phyllis M. Jeffers-Coly 

Chapter 16: Our Skins are Membranes, Not Walls: A Multiracial Feminist Conversation

Zahra Ahmed, Anita Chari, and Becky Thompson 

Chapter 17: Dancing Barefoot in the University: From Burnout to Radical Presence

Lela Mosemghvdlishvili 

Chapter 18: Alongside Aaron

Wendy Petersen-Boring 

Chapter 19: My Rhizomatic Awakening

Steven Thurston Oliver

 

Part IV: Liberatory Relationality: Cultivating Collective Compassion

LeeRay Costa

Chapter 20: Cultivating Belonging: Compassionate Practice and Pedagogy

Renuka Gusain 

Chapter 21: Beloved Community as Practice: Grounding Exercises, Care Teams, and Redefining Success

Meika Loe

Chapter 22: Why am I talking? Disrupting Dominant Narratives in Higher Education

Deb Spragg 

Chapter 23: Contemplative Emergence: How My Contemplative Practices Have Supported Transformative Change in a Higher Education Space

Ericka Echavarria 

Chapter 24: Enacting an Indigenous Decolonial Contemplative Mentorship in Higher Education: Meditations on the Legacy of Plenty Fox

Michael Yellow Bird and Holly Hatton

Chapter 25: Contemplative Resistance Amidst the Fires of Global Suffering

Jennifer Cannon

Chapter 26: Afterword: A Ritual for Resisting

Michelle C. Chatman, LeeRay Costa, and David W. Robinson-Morris

Biography

Michelle C. Chatman is Associate Professor of Crime, Justice, and Security Studies, Director of the Violence Prevention and Community Wellness Program, and Founding Director of the Mindfulness and Courageous Action (MICA) Lab at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC.

LeeRay Costa is Executive Director of Leadership Studies and the Batten Leadership Institute, and Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies/Anthropology at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA.

David W. Robinson-Morris is former Executive Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind), the Founder of The REImaginelution, and inaugural Executive Director of the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.

"This book is a wise and wildly creative guide to transforming higher education into a place where we can truly explore what it means to be human and work toward healing, toward becoming whole. Edited and written by some of the most experienced, committed, and grounded practitioners in the field, it includes fearless explorations of the contemplative to increase appreciation of interconnection, impermanence, community, the body, and pedagogies of love. It is the inspiration we need to meet the formidable demands of this time and turn the campus into a home where we all belong." 

Mirabai Bush, Founder, Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, USA.

"In this beautifully written volume, the essayists generously offer their reflections and contemplative practices to academics feeling pressured to show up as fragmented, disembodied versions of themselves. With testimonials and a range of contemplative rituals, this guide can ground readers and bolster their capacity to (re)connect with and rely on their inner wisdom. Mindfully being in conversation with the authors’ insights and engaging in their suggested practices positions academics to move towards wholeness and enhance the fortitude that is necessary to effect systemic change within our institutions and our society."

Veronica Womack, Associate Director, Inclusive Learning Communities, Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching, Northwestern University, USA.

 

"This collection is a balm for an educator’s soul. Full of practical and wise essays, it addresses current challenges in higher education through diverse stories and healing contemplative practices. The anthology offers ways to re-connect with ourselves and one another, re-invigorate our passion for educating, heal from the toxicity of systemic higher education, and re-imagine possibility.  As I read, I felt my exhausted spirit re-integrate with hope. I found myself jotting down ideas for how to bring the wise insights of this collection into my life, teaching, and work. I will be sitting with this collection for a while with deep, deep gratitude."

Beth Berila, Director, Gender and Women’s Studies, St. Cloud State University, USA.